Denver Broncos: Team has one WR beginning to emerge while another is trending way down

The Denver Broncos have won four of their last five games and have several players putting together encouraging performances that if sustained for the remainder of this season, could lead to a team pushing for a playoff spot.

In their 33-10 win over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night, the Broncos saw their best rushing performance as a team since 2013, compiling 225 yards on the ground. The defense put together another big game and Bo Nix is slowly becoming more and more comfortable with each start.

Rookie wide receiver Troy Franklin is coming along nicely too. After some fans talked about how he might not even make the team during the preseason, he started the season by being a gameday inactive in Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks. It seemed like Franklin’s rookie season would be a wash and the team would have to reassess what it had during the offseason.

Pretty clear Troy Franklin is trusted and is a big part of the Broncos’ offense now.

— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) October 18, 2024

That seemed like a best-case scenario for Franklin, but the team has started slowly mixing him in on offense and against the Saints, he made five catches for 50 yards. The slow rise of Franklin is something all Broncos fans should be excited about as he is beginning to show why he was such a high-rated prospect coming out of college at Oregon.

But another wide receiver, Marvin Mims Jr., is heading in the opposite direction. Last year’s second-round pick has had a strange tenure in Denver and one has to wonder where it goes from here.

Why has Marvin Mims failed to find success in Denver?

Mims caught 22 passes last year as a rookie and fans called for him to be more of a focal point in the offense throughout the season. Why Sean Payton didn’t have Mims on the field more often was a frequent question.

This season much more was expected out of Mims in year two. But through seven games, he has only five receptions and he’s been on the field for just 20 percent of the team’s offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Reference. Against the Saints, he dropped a routine pass that won’t help his chances any.

The Broncos have Courtland Sutton, Devaughn Vele and Franklin ahead of him on the depth chart and even Lil’Jordan Humphrey is getting more run. Mims is a player the Broncos could easily phase out of the lineup, the way they have with another of last year’s draft picks, Greg Dulcich.

There was and still is to a degree a ton of outrage about how this staff has seen Marvin Mims in this offense. I think the staff is right.

— Robby (@Robby_NFL) October 18, 2024

Mims has been valuable as a kick and punt returner but he is largely ineffective on offense. Perhaps that’s why he isn’t on the field more often. Perhaps the team has seen this in practices and that’s where the decision was made to limit his time on the field.

The Broncos traded up in the second round last year to get Mims but there is a good possibility that the team made a mistake with that move and is starting to realize it. Mims has a lot to do in order to get his career heading in the right direction if that is ever going to happen.